Need help getting clients for my Digital Marketing Business

[Votorik]

Hello, I just started a Digital Marketing Business that is mostly growth marketing via social medias. My problem is how to obtain clients? I emailed local businesses my pitch, but I get no response...
What is the best way to start getting clients for my business? Can someone steer me in the right direction.. would it be better to cold call businesses instead of email?

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Try signing up for a marketplace like Credo or Thumbtack.

Getting a listing on Clutch and UpCity might help too.

Experiment with all kinds of outreach and see which one works for you.

 

[ZCP]

How would you market your client's businesses?

 

[Walter.LV]

I literally tried a similar thing one year ago.

1. What's your offer ( to the businesses you sent the cold pitch)
2. How many businesses did you actually send your cold email to?
3. Did you choose a niche or did you choose a generalized approach?
4. Do you have any proof that the people you sent your offer to are buyers ( I.e. have bought similar services in the past)
5. Do you have any proof (case studies) that you can deliver what you claim to do?

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

How would you market your client's businesses?

Although this is a funny reply and at first glance makes sense, if you look deeper, it's actually a logical fallacy. Just like the fallacy that you must do something in order to have anything meaningful to say about it (which is a fallacy, if it was true, we would never have theorists about anything - and theory itself can be valuable, so long as it doesn't pretend to be empirical research).

I happen to run a marketing agency, and I can tell you that the way I market my agency has NOTHING to do with the way I do marketing for my clients. This means that I could be very good at doing marketing for my clients, and terrible at getting clients.

I have never done cold emailing and LinkedIn outreach for my clients. And yet those two forms of marketing form the core of my client acquisition process. If you run a marketing agency, most of the people you work for sell products, or otherwise productized services. I've had a few clients selling services, but too few to mention.

I emailed local businesses my pitch

Let me guess... you emailed 50 businesses. That's not enough dude. Email 100,000 businesses and then let's talk. It's a numbers game. You need to create a client acquisition SYSTEM that does its work regardless of what you do.

 

[Votorik]

Try signing up for a marketplace like Credo or Thumbtack.

Getting a listing on Clutch and UpCity might help too.

Experiment with all kinds of outreach and see which one works for you.

Got listings on sortlist.us and upcity. Just recently started on Thumbtack so will see how that goes out.

How would you market your client's businesses?

Most of the work will be outsourced.

I literally tried a similar thing one year ago.

1. What's your offer ( to the businesses you sent the cold pitch)
2. How many businesses did you actually send your cold email to?
3. Did you choose a niche or did you choose a generalized approach?
4. Do you have any proof that the people you sent your offer to are buyers ( I.e. have bought similar services in the past)
5. Do you have any proof (case studies) that you can deliver what you claim to do?

1. I send them an email of the services I provide and how it could help them. If you have any better cold email templates that would help form my cold email, it would be appreciated.
2. I do around 100 emails a day due to College studies. Will try to ramp this up though.
3. I chose generalized approach, if either one is better please tell me. I think niches would be more reasonable as their all in the same category? Should I go with that?
4. No I do not, I mostly send to businesses that doesn't run anything within my services and then I would try and offer them the particular service. If you have any suggestions that would severely help in determining if they are potential buyers, would help also.
5. No, I do not. How can I CS that would best fit my business?

Let me guess... you emailed 50 businesses. That's not enough dude. Email 100,000 businesses and then let's talk. It's a numbers game. You need to create a client acquisition SYSTEM that does its work regardless of what you do.

Currently doing college work, I'll ramp up when these classes are over just have 2 more weeks. Also I have some questions:
When you email businesses, do you target local or worldwide and what would be the response rate?
How would I go about creating a client acquisition system?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

When you email businesses, do you target local or worldwide and what would be the response rate?

Worldwide, I don't work locally.

In terms of response rate, that depends a lot on the niche/industry. Typically we select a particular niche, and then hunt down businesses in that niche, trying to test out different pain points, etc. So it can be as low as 0.1% and as high as 5-9%.

How would I go about creating a client acquisition system?

Find out what you would need to automate your client acquisition process and do that. Obviously I can't exactly tell you what I do, I am in the same industry as you

 

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[PizzaOnTheRoof]

GOLD! - HOT! - MARKETING - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

I was asked this a while ago: If you were to start your business from scratch, how would you approach prospecting? Given that you don't cold call. And you don't know many people in the business world to "spend your money on diesel and coffee" with. And you've already reached out to your friends...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Obviously I can't exactly tell you what I do, I am in the same industry as you

You can tell me, I’m your friend

 

[Black_Dragon43]

GOLD! - HOT! - MARKETING - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

I was asked this a while ago: If you were to start your business from scratch, how would you approach prospecting? Given that you don't cold call. And you don't know many people in the business world to "spend your money on diesel and coffee" with. And you've already reached out to your friends...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

You can tell me, I’m your friend

Well, I think I have already left enough hints

P.S. I've had a quick look and @Andy Black 's tips and strategies are great. I still advise you to get a system that implements those tips and strategies for you though

 

[Johnny boy]

Hello, I just started a Digital Marketing Business that is mostly growth marketing via social medias. My problem is how to obtain clients? I emailed local businesses my pitch, but I get no response...
What is the best way to start getting clients for my business? Can someone steer me in the right direction.. would it be better to cold call businesses instead of email?

You should hire my company. We are a digital marketing company that specializes in growth marketing. We can help your company grow and get more clients.

Lmao I love the irony

ISNT IT YOUR JOB TO BE GOOD AT GETTING CLIENTS?

edit: we post nationally on craigslist and get a 20x return on our ad spend. There’s my helpful advice.

 

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[Votorik]

Worldwide, I don't work locally.

In terms of response rate, that depends a lot on the niche/industry. Typically we select a particular niche, and then hunt down businesses in that niche, trying to test out different pain points, etc. So it can be as low as 0.1% and as high as 5-9%.


Find out what you would need to automate your client acquisition process and do that. Obviously I can't exactly tell you what I do, I am in the same industry as you

Thanks for the insight.

You should hire my company. We are a digital marketing company that specializes in growth marketing. We can help your company grow and get more clients.

Lmao I love the irony

ISNT IT YOUR JOB TO BE GOOD AT GETTING CLIENTS?

edit: we post nationally on craigslist and get a 20x return on our ad spend. There’s my helpful advice.

Well, absolutely!

 

[Andy Black]

You could say I run a Google Ads agency. I don’t run Google Ads to get clients. @Black_Dragon43 beat me to it with his link.


EDIT: Also thank you @PizzaOnTheRoof for linking to this thread:

• HOT TOPIC - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

 

[ZCP]

Although this is a funny reply and at first glance makes sense, if you look deeper, it's actually a logical fallacy.

Maybe read deeper into the meaning of what I posted?

I'm trying to get @Votorik to THINK on his own. Ask a question .... 'how would i market this company?' .... 'what industry are they in?' ...... 'what does science / data say works in that industry?' ........ etc.

Apply those same techniques to find the right mix of marketing channels / actions for his own company.

The book Traction is pretty good for this.

 

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[The-J]

I happen to run a marketing agency, and I can tell you that the way I market my agency has NOTHING to do with the way I do marketing for my clients. This means that I could be very good at doing marketing for my clients, and terrible at getting clients.

That's the difference between being good at tactics and being good at strategy.

Facebook marketing agencies very rarely use Facebook ads to get clients. SEO agencies very rarely use SEO to get clients. That's all well and good, but the Facebook marketing agency that is really good at using in-person marketing or cold calling has effectively used strategic thinking in order to get clients, because without that strategy, they would not have been able to figure out how to make those marketing methods work.

OP is likely a tactician (possibly a very good one, too) rather than a strategist. That's a skillset that will need to improve if OP wants to run a company. It's not enough to be able to run ads or make viral videos.

I second @ZCP's suggestion on Traction. Here's an Amazon link (affiliate link is included but it supports the forum not me): Amazon.com: Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth eBook: Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares: Kindle Store

 

[biophase]

I think ZCP has a valid point. Unless you start a digital marketing company that can market everything except digital marketing companies.

The OP should just hire BlackDragonn to market his company, then use the new clients that he gets to pay for BlackDragon’s fee.

It is ironic, it’s like asking how do I get more traffic to my SEO company.

 

[100k]

I have to call bullshit. How can you offer to do digital marketing for others when you can't even do it for yourself.

You shouldn't be offering this service.

You're like that fat guy from MJ's book that teaches people how to be healthy.

 

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[Votorik]

I have to call bullshit. How can you offer to do digital marketing for others when you can't even do it for yourself.

You shouldn't be offering this service.

You're like that fat guy from MJ's book that teaches people how to be healthy.

Hahaha, its outsourced. I'm just the middleman.

 

[broswoodwork]

Hello, I just started a Digital Marketing Business that is mostly growth marketing via social medias. My problem is how to obtain clients? I emailed local businesses my pitch, but I get no response...
What is the best way to start getting clients for my business? Can someone steer me in the right direction.. would it be better to cold call businesses instead of email?

It seems like one common problem is local businesses not wanting to grow, or not wanting to grow too fast.

I'd assume you can identify the ones that actually want to grow when you see their advertising elsewhere. Can you reach out to those entities directly on the phone and via email and offer them a better value than what they're getting already, or a value that compliments what they've already got in the mix?

 

[Votorik]

It seems like one common problem is local businesses not wanting to grow, or not wanting to grow too fast.

I'd assume you can identify the ones that actually want to grow when you see their advertising elsewhere. Can you reach out to those entities directly on the phone and via email and offer them a better value than what they're getting already, or a value that compliments what they've already got in the mix?

Sure thing, I'll try and do this. I'll start targeting worldwide, seems to be the better choice.

 

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[biophase]

Hahaha, its outsourced. I'm just the middleman.

So you have no idea if your people can even deliver. You just make a bunch of false promises.

Why don’t you hire your outsourced people to market your company for you and see if they can do it?

 

[Miketing]

That's the difference between being good at tactics and being good at strategy.

Facebook marketing agencies very rarely use Facebook ads to get clients. SEO agencies very rarely use SEO to get clients. That's all well and good, but the Facebook marketing agency that is really good at using in-person marketing or cold calling has effectively used strategic thinking in order to get clients, because without that strategy, they would not have been able to figure out how to make those marketing methods work.

OP is likely a tactician (possibly a very good one, too) rather than a strategist. That's a skillset that will need to improve if OP wants to run a company. It's not enough to be able to run ads or make viral videos.

I second @ZCP's suggestion on Traction. Here's an Amazon link (affiliate link is included but it supports the forum not me): Amazon.com: Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth eBook: Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares: Kindle Store

I appreciate the explanation.

I'm currently trying to build a marketing/lead generation agency after a few years learning all the different marketing tactics and doing marketing for different businesses.

I was previously in the school of thought that marketing agencies require different methods for gaining clients, and that my agency clients will have budget to spend on ads so it will be different.

If I'm so good at marketing though, then why can't I find any of my own clients?

I've been following a course so far with a set of tactics that worked for the creator and some other people, but it hasn't quite worked out for me yet.

Maybe it's time to reconsider my strategy, start thinking about where my ideal clients are, and how best to communicate with them instead of following some cookie-cutter tactics that worked for someone else.

I guess this sums up the difference between working for others and building your own business; you gotta come up with your own damn strategy.

 

[Votorik]

So you have no idea if your people can even deliver. You just make a bunch of false promises.

Why don’t you hire your outsourced people to market your company for you and see if they can do it?

Well, technically I can't use them. I'm marketing my business to other businesses, I'm not trying to market to consumers. Don't get me wrong, but If I were to use them they would be mostly marketing to consumers and not other businesses.

 

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[The-J]

If I'm so good at marketing though, then why can't I find any of my own clients?

Probably because you're not that good. It's ok, just know where you sit. You'll need to improve your client acquisition strategy, and your own skills as well. It's not even about 'choose my own tactics', it's more 'understand why those tactics work for those companies' and decide whether or not it's something you want to test.

I'll be honest, and this isn't directed at you or the OP or anyone in particular: there are too many digital marketing agencies and almost all of them suck. Entrepreneurs will hire these companies and almost invariably have a bad experience. Then they try to hire some other one, hoping that the more expensive one or the one with the big name clients will finally help them. Of course, the agency takes the client because so many of these agencies are so hungry for work that they won't turn down an obviously bad fit.

But because almost all of them suck, every agency entrepreneur ever thinks that they can finally solve the problem. But they don't: they just end up becoming one of the many. The clients they end up with are the same ones that have gone through 7 agencies and left with bad experiences from them. Then they get burnt out with low client quality and quit.

I blame Tai Lopez and his ilk for convincing young guys with no skills to start these stupid marketing agencies.

Well, technically I can't use them. I'm marketing my business to other businesses, I'm not trying to market to consumers. Don't get me wrong, but If I were to use them they would be mostly marketing to consumers and not other businesses.

That's not a good excuse. How good are your outsourced guys, anyway? Are they quality? And, most importantly, how would YOU know? What's your experience with running the digital marketing campaigns that you sell?

 

[broswoodwork]

I blame Tai Lopez and his ilk for convincing young guys with no skills to start these stupid marketing agencies.

Is that what he does? All I know about him is he hangs out in his garage with books and a sports car, and everyone here, and the business board I came from originally, hates him.

 

[100k]

Well, technically I can't use them. I'm marketing my business to other businesses, I'm not trying to market to consumers. Don't get me wrong, but If I were to use them they would be mostly marketing to consumers and not other businesses.

What if I told you businesses are actually run by..... human beings ... i.e consumers. Your CEO, head of marketing, head of sales.... they are actually human beings, they actually visit things like twitter, linkedin, facebook, google... I know shocker. So actually, you could market to those human beings - instead of marketing to a "business".

 

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[Miketing]

I blame Tai Lopez and his ilk for convincing young guys with no skills to start these stupid marketing agencies

So how do these young guys get the skills to be ready to run their own marketing agencies?

I've worked in marketing for about 4 years now, helping all kinds of agencies and businesses with SEO, facebook ads, copywriting, etc. Never really gone all in on my own business though.

Would you say I need to get some success with a venture of my own before being qualified to help others via my own marketing agency?

I am just planning to focus on one niche, generating leads via facebook funnels. Not a full service agency where I'd have to come up with a new strategy for every client and niche.

 

[ZCP]

@Votorik so talk through what thoughts / directions / brainstorms you have had for how to accomplish this. what things have you tried? what research have you done? books have you read? data reviewed?

welcome to the forum. provide some value to this thread.

 

[Andy Black]

Hello, I just started a Digital Marketing Business that is mostly growth marketing via social medias. My problem is how to obtain clients? I emailed local businesses my pitch, but I get no response...
What is the best way to start getting clients for my business? Can someone steer me in the right direction.. would it be better to cold call businesses instead of email?

Did you read that thread about how I got started getting local service business clients?

What’s your takeaways?

More importantly, what will you do this week to help a local service business?

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

@ZCP and @The-J - thanks for the book recommendation. I've heard Traction mentioned several times before, by several business owners and partners I trust, but have never read it myself. Your two recommandations pushed me over the edge, and I just ordered it. Looks interesting Thanks for sharing!

I'm trying to get @Votorik to THINK on his own. Ask a question .... 'how would i market this company?' .... 'what industry are they in?' ...... 'what does science / data say works in that industry?' ........ etc.

I see, this is more of a mindset issue. I agree that developing a mindset where you learn to explore your problems and uncover solutions is critical on the journey. So that's a very valuable point, thanks for making it.

And sorry for picking on your comment, it's not even that I interpreted your comment in that way, but I've seen people laugh at others before on this issue so I thought I'd take this opportunity to clarify my opinion on it.

That's all well and good, but the Facebook marketing agency that is really good at using in-person marketing or cold calling has effectively used strategic thinking in order to get clients, because without that strategy, they would not have been able to figure out how to make those marketing methods work.

Either that, or they're good at two tactics - Facebook marketing and cold calling

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I'll be honest, and this isn't directed at you or the OP or anyone in particular: there are too many digital marketing agencies and almost all of them suck. Entrepreneurs will hire these companies and almost invariably have a bad experience. Then they try to hire some other one, hoping that the more expensive one or the one with the big name clients will finally help them. Of course, the agency takes the client because so many of these agencies are so hungry for work that they won't turn down an obviously bad fit.

I agree, digital marketing is at the moment a hypercompetitive market. And, to be honest, whether you get clients and are successful largely depends on your sales & marketing ability. Yes, you DO need to do a good enough job (otherwise you won't get paid - and trust me, clients who pay a lot can recognize good work from bad), but it's your sales & marketing ability for your own business that will make the difference. Even if you are only decent at Facebook ads or whatever you do - you can still scale up and make a lot of money. But you gotta be at least decent. Most people totally SUCK. They literarily watched some videos about FB ads yesterday, and today they run a FB ads agency...

Just last month I spoke with some guys from the US who had reached out. Apparently they just came from working with an agency trying to do FB ads, and they spent $8K (4K to the agency) and got ZERO results. Their numbers really did look abysmal... 0.1% CTR, 0 conversions.

They didn't even know those were bad numbers. They were trying to market festivals and events. So after discussing with them, it turned out that most of their attendants came from billboards and the like. They were bleeding money because those were too expensive, and they had lost money with every event they ran.

And they were looking to have my agency do Facebook ads for them and fully book an event for them in 2 weeks. Of course I turned them down. I advised them to go back to the drawing board and think of ways to reach their target market that give more bang for their buck, even if they don't scale as well as FB. I told them: we can do FB for you if you insist, but our prices are high, and we may not get the results you want in such a short time. Other marketing methods are much better for you.

It was clear that they could get up to 1-2% CTR at least on FB, but it would still require a big ad spend to reach and convert as many people as they wished. Too big of a risk for a business that doesn't have a proven business model.

They were far better off trying offline marketing (locally) or contacting local Instagram influencers. I told them to reach back to me after they tried that. So I sent them out the door.

I'm sure newbies would have been keen to take them on and been like "YEAH, WE WILL GET YOUR EVENT BOOKED IN NO TIME! YOU'VE WORKED WITH PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING BEFORE, BUT DON'T WORRY MAN, WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED!"

But because almost all of them suck, every agency entrepreneur ever thinks that they can finally solve the problem. But they don't: they just end up becoming one of the many. The clients they end up with are the same ones that have gone through 7 agencies and left with bad experiences from them. Then they get burnt out with low client quality and quit.

It's not just that they suck. Some of them are decent. The bigger problem is that they do not know how to advise their clients. They just know how to do one thing. And they will do that one thing, but if the client doesn't need that one thing, then they will still take the client on and will not be able to distinguish what is in the client's best interest. Then they come with sleazy "friendly" BS - "oh what can I do for your business? Uh, what's your biggest problem?" and of course clients treat them like trash.

And then most one-trick ponies don't know how to take care of accounting and the legal side of business. They don't know how to negotiate and how to structure deals to their advantage. So they get cheated out of money. Clients can smell an idiot that they can abuse.

At the agency, I've never had a client not pay in the end. Never. Currently I'm about to sue a past client for 8K because he breached our contract. You must keep people you work with accountable.

If you have clients who don't pay you, then you're either doing a terrible job (and they are entitled not to pay you) or you don't know how to structure deals and make contracts. In both cases, you shouldn't be in business. Close your doors, learn how to be confident, get a good mindset, study your craft, learn how to write a contract and then come back.

So how do these young guys get the skills to be ready to run their own marketing agencies?

I am 26 years young. You get the skills by studying, implementing and doing the work. When you get a project, you do a damn good job, even if it takes you 20 times the time you estimated it would take. You study the project. Many people I've hired in the past told me "uhh but you're only paying me $450, that means so and so hours for me" and I tell them "I've hired you on a per project basis, not on an hourly basis. It's not my fault that you can't estimate how much a project is going to take. Why did you agree to the project in the first place?"

I don't understand what is going on through these people's minds. If you need to get a task done, are you going to do a SHIT JOB just because you understand in the process of doing it that it's a bit more complicated than you first estimated? You're not going to do all the work that is required to do it well because it takes longer than YOU estimated? Really? Imagine if I said that to a client... "Ummm Mr. So and So, I'm afraid we can't get you a running funnel because you only paid $8,000 to us, and that means just 16 hours of work. Sorry about that..." I can guarantee you that if I said that my client would come and slap me and sue the hell out of me. Most people really have to fix their mindset.

Your mindset matters more than your skills. How well do you control your emotions? How clearly can you think in high-pressure situations? How well do you know to help the client? How well can you read between the lines? These soft-skills you can only learn by thinking about your past experience in a lot of depth.

Would you say I need to get some success with a venture of my own before being qualified to help others via my own marketing agency?

Do you need success as a soccer player before you can be qualified to be a soccer manager? Read: THIS Controls Your Life And You Don't Even Know It...

Starting a business for yourself is different than marketing an existing business. You need to learn the skills that you need to market businesses for your clients. Start studying marketing. Proper studying. Read books, read articles, study landing pages, study ads, etc. Proper study takes time. It will take you at least 1-2 months of studying copywriting for example, before you can open the door and call yourself a freelance copywriter.

In your case, you say you've worked in marketing. What exactly have you been doing in terms of SEO, FB ads, and copywriting?